by Peter Weiss
Warwick University Drama Society, August 1980
Director: Sally Davies
Peter Weiss’s play The Persecution and Assassination of
Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the
Direction of the Marquis de Sade is, not surprisingly, usually
referred to as Marat/Sade to save time. It used to be a
staple of student drama, calling as it does for some declamatory
speeches and lots of very uninhibited physical acting. Sally
Davies’s production of the play, originally staged at the
University of Warwick Arts Centre in November 1979, transferred to the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe the following summer and garnered a rave
review from The Scotsman ‘one of the finest
productions in the history of the Fringe.’
This off-duty photo of the company was taken on the first day of
rehearsals in our Edinburgh venue, the Sculpture Court of Edinburgh
College of Art in Lauriston Place. I’m lurking in the back row,
third from left. Some other notable faces: Lorna Dickinson, sixth
from right in the back row, is now a high-flying TV producer; Simon
Grigg, kneeling in the middle row second from left, is the Rector of
St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden; and Martyn Ingle, squatting
centre in the white T-shirt, died tragically the following year after
kicking off a promising acting career with a role in the film
Quadrophenia.